Wind power is considered one of the cleanest, most environmentally friendly energy sources presently available, and wind turbines have gained increased attention in this regard. A modern wind turbine typically includes a tower, a generator, a gearbox, a nacelle, and a rotor having a rotatable hub with three rotor blades extending outwardly from the hub. The rotor blades capture kinetic energy of wind using known airfoil principles. The rotor blades transmit the kinetic energy in the form of rotational energy so as to turn a shaft coupling the rotor blades to a gearbox, or if a gearbox is not used, directly to the generator. The generator then converts the mechanical energy to electrical energy that may be deployed to a utility grid.
When installing rotor blades on a wind turbine, careful attention must be placed to balancing out the rotor blades to ensure that a balanced load is applied to the rotor during operation of the wind turbine. Typically, blade balancing occurs in the field, with each full rotor blade being weighed and balanced relative to the other rotor blades. Unfortunately, the current field-implemented blade balancing process has many disadvantages, including being quite time consuming and cumbersome. In addition, with segmented rotor blades becoming more popular, the disadvantages of the conventional blade balancing process have been exacerbated by the need to balance multiple components for each rotor blade in order to form a fully balanced rotor set.
Accordingly, an improved method for balancing segmented rotor blades of a wind turbine would be welcomed in the technology.